Topic

Philippines insurgencyi

Considered one of Asia's longest running conflicts, decades of fighting between various rebel groups and the Philippine government has claimed the lives of 120,000 people and displaced another 2 million. However hopes for peace was raised in 2014 when a peace deal was signed between the country's largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which aims to establish a more powerful autonomous region for Muslims in the south of the largely Catholic nation. However, a few hundred breakaway rebels have vowed to continue fighting, while an Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group also remains active in the southern Philippines, kidnapping foreigners and local traders. Aside from the Muslim insurgency, there is ongoing conflict between communist rebels and government forces, while violent clan feuds are also a security concern in the south. 

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  • Since the start of the year, the New People’s Army has clashed with government forces at least 10 times in Rizal, Batangas and Iloilo
  • President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr declared in December there were ‘no more active’ NPA bases in the country

The ex-president’s call for Mindanao’s independence could reignite internal ‘hatreds’ on an island with long-running communist and Islamist insurgencies.

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The fighting occurred in remote villages near Malaybalay, at the start of a two-day unilateral Christmas truce declared by the Philippines’ communist party and its armed wing.

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While military officers hope the move will bring ‘lasting peace’, Duterte supporters describe Marcos Jnr’s surprise bid to resume talks as ‘stupid’ and ‘unpatriotic’.

Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano had been working with coastal communities opposed to reclamation activities in Manila Bay when they disappeared earlier this month.

The party’s military wing – the NPA – has been waging an armed rebellion in one of the world’s longest-running insurgencies. The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people.

As Asean prepares to launch a regional framework on promoting women’s role in peacebuilding, ‘superwoman’ Connie Dumato and her daughter Princess provide a template for female-led conflict resolution.

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Clashes erupted on the island province of Basilan, underscoring the fragility of law and order in a region faced with a surfeit of firearms, private armies, crushing poverty and a long history of violence.

He won the presidency in 1992 and was credited with steering the economy into a period of rapid growth until the 1997 financial crisis hit Southeast Asia.

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The two men are accused of abducting two Canadians and a German and killing them months later after the deadline for payment of the ransoms had passed, as well as other ransom kidnappings and bomb attacks.

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The deadly shooting happened shortly after voting got under way on Mindanao island. It came after five grenades exploded outside a polling station on the island late on Sunday.

The presidential candidate – and current vice-president – has been falsely accused of aiding and abetting the Philippines’ long-running communist insurgency, an accusation that can have deadly consequences.

Whoever wins the Philippine election will have to deal with the security and political complexities in Mindanao, analysts say, including seeing through a peace process.

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More than 835,000 of 1.3 million citizens registered to vote; winner takes oath of office on 20th anniversary of independence from Indonesia; Francisco ‘Lu Olo’ Guterres, and Jose Ramos-Horta, are front-runners.

About 60 Muslim militants in remote camp were attacked by fighter jets and army forces, military officials said; It was not clear whether the new leader of Islamic State group was killed.

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One of those killed was Peges Mamasainged of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest Muslim rebel group in the south, on the way to a meeting to resolve a long-standing clan dispute.

Government forces launched air strikes and an assault on a rebel encampment in Mindanao, saying the death of George Madlos is a ‘major blow’ to the rebels.

In the Philippines, beauty queens don’t just wear swimsuits and talk about world peace, they’re being used as weapons against the world’s longest running communist insurgency.

The Abu Sayyaf commander was linked to the abduction of eight Indonesian fishermen last year and the 2015 kidnapping of two Canadian tourists.

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The militants were arrested in Sabah state, where they fled in March because of military assaults on their jungle bases in the southern Philippine province of Sulu.

Human rights experts say the shooting of nine activists follows a pattern of bloody deaths and abuses of authority throughout the president’s administration, which ends in June next year.

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